Increase Funding to Marist Counseling

A social change group at Marist College proposes an increase in funding for the counseling center. Through interviews and surveys with Marist students and faculty, our group discovered a desperate need for alterations in the counseling center. We believe that an increase in funding would enable Marist to hire more trained counselors, increase office space, and acquire other resources necessary to help Marist students.

Currently, the Health and Wellness Center caters to both physical illness and mental health. This leads to extraordinary influx of students that hinders efforts of the counseling center. The small space, lack of permanent offices for counselors, and lack of privacy impedes successful treatment. With an increase in funding, Marist would be able to alter the counseling center in order to benefit the community.

There is no active social media page promoting the Marist Counseling. There are dedicated professionals willing and able to lend their services to students, but are not being promoted properly. Therefore an increase in funding will allow for more informative advertisements, posters, RA training, and possible prevention programs in Freshman Year Seminars. From our survey, 80% of students did not know Marist offers guided meditation, drop-in counseling, grief counseling, and relationship advice group therapy. 77% of Marist students did not know Marist offered a 24/7 on-call counseling service . These staggering statistics further proves a need to improve awareness of the counseling center. In addition, 75% of students agreed social media would be an effective advertisement for counseling treatment, and 70% said email was the best way to spread awareness of the programs Marist does offer.

Overall, Marist and the Health and Wellness Center do their best to support Marist students. However, through research, we believe an increase of funding would ease the workload of current counselors, spread awareness of the numerous and beneficial programs offered, and overall better the therapeutic experience for students.